Under the Light of the Stars
by helen the melon
Summary: L/J romance... Lily + James go camping - without magic! (it was originally called 'the great outdoors', but i didnt like that name, so i changed it)
1. The Announcement

A/N: Hello everyone! This fic is kid of a break from my usual depressing stuff, cos I'm in too much of a good mood today :) Please R/R, and if you leave a signed review, or leave your screen name, I will R/R your fics :)  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters you know. I only own Katya, Hannah and Sammie. I also own any 'creative spellings'. Anything else is JKR's, so please don't bother suing, cos u wont get anything!  
  
1 Chapter 1: The Announcement  
  
It was breakfast time on Lily's first day back at Hogwarts in sixth year. The ceiling above was bright blue, a mirror image of the sky outside, and everyone was in a good mood. Lily smiled to herself as she finished her cereal, and watched her best friend Katya flirting with Sirius Black, a boy in their year, and another of Lily's friends. Lily knew that Katya had had an enormous crush on Sirius since third year, but it didn't seem that anything was going to happen about it. As everyone was finishing eating, and getting ready to leave for their first lessons, Professor Dumbledore stood up, and clapped his hands to attract the attention of all the students in the hall.  
  
"Could I please ask all sixth years to stay behind after the other students have left. I have an important announcement which you will all need to hear"  
  
Lily was sitting in a large group of friends, Remus Lupin, Katya Fenjuke, James Potter, Sirius Black, Hannah Cobb, Peter Pettigrew and Sammie Eastward. Remus was medium-height, with light brown hair and brown eyes. He was the quietest of the group, but loved jokes and pranks as much as the others did. Remus was a werewolf, as Lily had recently discovered. At the time, she had been very angry with James, Sirius, Remus and Peter for not telling her, but she had soon forgiven them. Katya was quite short, with shoulder length blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was muggle-born, and had known Lily when they were at primary school. James was tall, and had messy black hair and dark brown eyes. Most girls thought he was very handsome, although Lily couldn't see this – he was just like an older brother to her, as he had always looked after her. They had known each other since they were first years on the train journey to school, when Severus Snape, a greasy-haired Slytherin had tried to attack her. James was best friends with Sirius, who was also tall with black hair (although his was longer, and he wore it in a ponytail), and had nearly as many admirers as James. It was those two who usually thought up pranks, and although they were very clever, they both usually had the highest detention record in the school. Hannah was tall as well, nearly as tall as James was, with long brown hair and hazel eyes. She, like Remus, was quite quiet, and was usually the one who made sure the others didn't do anything dangerous. Peter was short, and slightly overweight, with pale blonde hair and light blue eyes. Hannah didn't like him very much, she said he seemed odd, but no one else could see anything wrong with him. Hannah was taking divination for one of her NEWTs, and she sometimes acted a bit strangely. Sammie had dirty brown hair cut into a bob, and eyes that were so dark blue they sometimes almost seemed black. She was a pureblood witch, and her parents were friends with Remus's  
  
As the other students left the hall, Dumbledore smiled at the slightly nervous looking began to speak again.  
  
"This year, the staff at Hogwarts have decided that although it is very important for you all to be competent witches and wizards by the time you leave school, it is also important for you to be able to do some things without using any magic. For instance, would you be able to cope if you were in a situation where you were unable to use magic, for whatever reason? We are going to test you on this, and if it works, we will test All future sixth years in the same way."  
  
"Oh goodie, so we get to be the guinea pigs" Lily heard Sirius mutter, and she giggled, trying not to make too much noise.  
  
"We will put you into groups of four, and in those groups, you will have to survive a night spent outdoors, using absolutely no magic. To make sure none of you cheat and use magic," and at this point, Lily was sure that Dumbledore glanced at James and Sirius, "I will be taking your wands from you before you leave, and they will be kept with me until you return. Now I shall give you the groups. I have tried to put people together who are friends, and will work well together, but if you have been grouped with someone you would rather not work with, please do not complain, as the groups cannot be changed. You will be leaving in five days time, and as of tomorrow, you will be excused from your lessons to prepare."  
  
Lily started to feel a bit worried about the groupings. What if she was not with any of her friends? She didn't pay much attention to the lists of pupils being read out, until she heard her own name:  
  
"Group 6: Black, Sirius; Evans, Lily; Fenjuke Katya; Potter, James  
  
Group 7: Cobb, Hannah; Eastward, Samantha; Lupin, Remus; Pettigrew, Peter"  
  
Lily grinned, she was glad she was with her friends, but Hannah didn't look quite so happy about being grouped with Peter. As soon as Dumbledore had read out all the groupings, the students hurried off to their first lessons – Lily's was Care of magical Creatures. She wasn't paying much attention though, which resulted in a nasty burn from the Fire Crab she was meant to be looking after. This happened about halfway through the lesson, and meant that she had to go to the hospital wing, and miss the rest of the lesson.  
  
When she was allowed to leave the hospital, it was time for her next lesson – Defence Against the Dark Arts, with the Hufflepuffs. None of the Hufflepuff girls seemed to like Lily – she was friends with James Potter, and most of the Hufflepuff girls were part of James's 'followers', as Sammie called them.  
  
As she had expected, DADA was worse than usual, as the Hufflepuffs were not happy about Lily being grouped with James. Professor Vorbuk, the teacher, spent the lesson explaining the theory of duelling, and he said that they would be soon going to be able to attempt duelling each other. Lily hoped she would be put with a Gryffindor, as most of the Hufflepuffs looked ready to kill her. As soon as the lesson was over, she went to the Great hall for lunch. Then she had to climb right up to the sixth floor, for History of Magic.  
  
As usual, Professor Binns droned on about the goblin rebellions of 16- whenever-it-was, and paid absolutely no notice to anything the pupils were doing. Lily used some embroidery threads she had conjured up to make a friendship bracelet, as she had learnt to make them when she was in primary school, and she wanted to see if she could still make them. Finally, at the end of the lesson, Lily knotted the end of the bracelet, and was quite surprised to see how neat it was, considering she had not made any for nearly seven years. She tied it around her wrist, and walked back to her common room, with her friends, as that was the last lesson of the day.  
  
  
  
A/N: Sorry how boring it is – it will get better later on – honest! Please review once you are finished – look there's a lovely little box, just at the bottom of the screen :) 


	2. The Departure

A/N: Oh wow – I'm actually getting reviews – and not one flame... I shall go sit in a corner and smile @ people... once I finished writing this :)  
  
Disclaimer (again): Look, haven't u figured yet that I own NOTHING? Nada! Zilch! It's all JKR's  
  
1 Chapter 2: The Departure  
  
The next few days flew past so quickly that when Saturday, the day they would be leaving, came so quickly, that Lily didn't realise what was happening when she was woken up by a grinning Katya, to shouts of:  
  
" We're leaving! Hurry up, or we're gonna go without you!"  
  
Once she realised what was happening, Lily sat up and grinned. At the bottom of her bed was her rucksack, filled with all the camping equipment she was told they would need. Lily had never been camping before, and she was looking forward to it immensely.  
  
Lily dressed in muggle trousers and a thick jumper, and ran down the stairs into the common room. It was completely deserted, except for one person: James Potter. He was wearing his school robes, as usual.  
  
"James, didn't you hear? Dumbledore told us we all had to wear muggle clothes. He said they would be more practical for walking and living outside"  
  
"Yeah, I know," James replied, "but I'm not muggle-born – I don't own any muggle clothes!"  
  
Lily grinned again, and waved her wand towards James, whose robes immediately turned to muggle clothing. He thanked her, and followed her down to the great hall for breakfast. As soon as everyone was finished eating, they went back up to their dormitories, collected their things, and regrouped in the great hall.  
  
In the great hall, Dumbledore came round, and took everybody's wands off them, to ensure they would not use any magic. When he got to Sirius, he said, with a twinkle in his eye:  
  
"Mr Black, would you kindly remove the featherweight charm from your bag?", then, as Sirius feigned innocence, "Finite Incantatem"  
  
Sirius groaned, as his bag regained its normal weight. Lily assumed he mush have packed much more food than most people would need, as he was always complaining about being hungry.  
  
Then, once all the wands were collected in, Professor McGonagall explained what would be happening next.  
  
"I shall hand a Portkey to each group, and you will make sure that everyone in the group is touching part of it. This is critical. At the specified time, you will be transported to the place where you will have to spend the night. You must keep the Portkey with you at all times, as it is the only way you will be able to return. The Portkey will take you all back at one o'clock tomorrow afternoon, so be prepared. Now, one member from each group shall collect your Portkey."  
  
As Katya went to collect the Portkey, Lily glanced worriedly at James.  
  
"We will be alright, won't we?" she whispered, "I mean, none of our group could really be called responsible – I'm sure we'll end up losing the Portkey... or something else will go wrong..."  
  
"Hey, don't be so nervous!" James whispered in reply, as McGonagall was frowning at them both, "Dumbledore wouldn't have put us together if he didn't think we could cope, and besides, if we do get lost, we'll get rescued. You sound like Trelawney, predicting death and destruction all the time!"  
  
Just then, Katya returned with the Portkey – it was in the shape of an old tyre, and it was easy for the four teenagers to each get a grip on part of it.  
  
"Everyone hold tour Portkey" said Dumbledore, "they will leave in 5.... 4.... 3.... 2.... 1... NOW!"  
  
Lily felt a pull from directly behind her navel, and then she had the feeling she was flying, although she kept her eyes tightly shut. Quite soon, the movement stopped, and she opened her eyes. Sirius, James, Katya and she were all standing on a bleak, desolate moor. None of them had any idea where they were.  
  
After looking around for a couple of minutes, Sirius, who was the only one of the group who had ever been camping before, said that Lily and James should go to look for any dry firewood they could use, while Katya and he put up the tent. Katya grinned. So Lily and James set off to look for firewood. As they walked along in silence, Lily found herself thinking:  
  
"You know, Lil, he is actually kinda cute... NO! I cannot start thinking like that – he's one of my friends, it would only cause disaster if we did get together, which we are NOT, and anyway, it would just ruin our friendship, we would break up, and the Hufflepuff girls would hate me even more... why am I even thinking this? He doesn't like me – or not in that way, anyway..."  
  
Lily and James wandered over the bracken, until they realised they had reached a small clump of quite short trees, which they could easily gather low-hanging branches from.  
  
Lily and James gathered as much wood as they could both carry, and made their way back to where they had left Katya, Sirius and all their bags. They found Sirius completing putting up the first tent, while Katya was putting the poles for the second tent together. They had two two-man tents, and had decided that the girls would share one, and the two boys would have the other one. As James, Sirius and Katya put up the second tent, Lily built a fire, and began to cook the sausages she had brought. She was the only muggle-born, except Sirius, and so she assumed that she and he would be the only ones able to cook without magic... and she would NEVER trust Sirius anywhere near fire – magical or not!  
  
It took nearly ten minutes to cook the food and put the tent up, as the wind was quite strong, and slowed everything down. Then they ate, the sausages, which they were all very glad of, as it seemed a very long time since breakfast, back at Hogwarts. Katya was the first to finish eating, and she immediately got up to wash up... but then she realised they had no water. She pointed this out to the others, and they decided they should go to search for water. They set off, walking quite quickly, as there was still quite a strong breeze, and if they stood still for too long, they would begin to feel cold.  
  
It took nearly three hours to find water, and then fill the containers they had brought with them. Then walking back took over an hour, as James got them all hopelessly lost. By the time they returned to their campsite, the wind had died down, and it was quite warm, although the sun was setting. No-one could really be bothered to cook anything by that time, so they just ate some bread and cheese, and then drank some water, and went to bed.  
  
A/N: Well, that's my random babbling for the moment – hope u all like it, plz review (look, that nice little review box is still there!). Sorry I didn't finish it sooner, I kinda had a bad case of writers block, and I am writing this at 5:00 am, so I am very sorry if it's awful!!  
  
Luv, Helen :) 


	3. The Kiss

A/N: Well, finally, here it is! Sorry I took so long to write this – I been away for a week (camping... and I now have a much less happy view of it ^_^), but I have done it at last, so here it is...  
  
Disclaimer: I really can/t be bothered – check the other chapters if you are really that worried!!  
  
Chapter 3:  
  
Lily ducked through the door to her tent, and changed into her lilac pyjamas. She rolled out her sleeping bag, and sat down on it. Then she took out the book she had been reading, and opened it at her bookmark. Before she had read more than ten words, Katya wandered in.  
  
"What ya reading?" she asked, clearly not all that interested.  
  
"The Hobbit. It's a Muggle book..."  
  
"Hmm... I think we had to read that for Muggle Studies. I never finished it though, I got bored halfway. Anyway, I'm gonna go to bed now, I need some sleep. Wake me up tomorrow morning, or I'll sleep until midday!"  
  
Lily turned off her torch, and lay down, hoping to get to sleep. But she wasn't tired, so after about ten minutes, she got dressed again, picked up her book, and went outside. The sky was jet-black, and filled with stars. But there was a bright light on the ground, about 50 metres away.  
  
"What's that?" Lily muttered, and walked towards it. Soon she realised – James and Sirius had built a campfire, and they were toasting marshmallows on it. [A/N: you didn't really expect me to do some sort of alien crap, did you? You don't really think I'm that cliché-d, do you?!?]  
  
Lily walked quickly over towards the two boys.  
  
"You two really don't ever stop eating, do you?" Lily grinned, and sat down on the ground near to the fire. She opened her book, and started reading, while the two boys continued to eat their marshmallows. There had been ten minutes of near-silence, when James stood up.  
  
"Sirius, Lily, I'm gonna go to bed now. I'm also gonna be an incredibly kind and generous friend, and let you two finish the marshmallows..."  
  
"James? They're my marshmallows. I brought them. Remember?"  
  
"Oh yeah. Well, you can finish them anyway. I need my sleep!"  
  
James walked off in the direction of his tent. As soon as he was out of sight, Sirius grinned.  
  
"So... I hear Katya has a bit of a thing for me... wanna tell me if it's true?"  
  
"Um, that would be... NO!!! Why you want to know, anyway?"  
  
"'Cos... Well, don't tell anyone," Sirius looked serious [A/N: oh dear, that sounds stupid... I should maybe thing of another word for serious... can't be bothered to change it though☺☻] for once, " but if she likes me, I might ask her out."  
  
"Tough! You're gonna have to find out yourself!" Lily grinned, and started to walk towards her tent, "Night night! I'm gonna get some beauty sleep as well – and you should as well, you need it more than me!" she laughed, and crawled through the tent doorway. Outside, Sirius yelled good-naturedly. Katya's eyes flickered.  
  
"Wassamatter? Wossgoinon?"  
  
Lily stuck her head out of the tent door, and put her finger to her lips. Sirius frowned, and Lily whispered  
  
"Shh! You woke up Katya's trying to sleep!"  
  
Then she went back in her tent, changed back into her pyjamas, and got into her sleeping bag. She didn't expect to be able to get to sleep, as she didn't feel any more tired than she had earlier, but within fifteen minutes, she was dead to the world.  
  
  
  
*~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~*  
  
  
  
Lily woke up, and looked around – but she couldn't see anything. She reached for her torch, and used it to light up the face of her watch. It was a nice watch, she had been given it for her last birthday, but she couldn't usually wear it around Hogwarts, because all the magic stopped it from working. She also owned a magical watch, but she couldn't have brought that camping with her because of the no-magic rule. When she saw what time it was, she groaned. It was 2:15am. She had wanted to get up early, but not this early!! She lay back again, but soon realised that she wasn't going to be getting any more sleep for a while. So she got out of bed, shoved a thick jumper over her pyjama top, and put on her shoes. Then she stood up, looked at her feet, smiled to herself, sat back down and put her shoes on the right feet. Eventually, she scrambled out the tent door. Maybe if she walked around for a bit, she would feel a bit more tired.  
  
Lily wandered slowly away from the small campsite, not really paying much attention to where she was going. She glanced up at the sky, and saw all the stars, much brighter and clearer than she had ever been able to see them at home, or at Hogwarts. lily was still watching the stars, when she tripped over something  
  
"Oof!"  
  
"Eurgh!"  
  
Oh my goodness! Lily thought, it's not a something – its a someone! Who on earth is out here at this time?  
  
"Who the hell is that?"  
  
"James?"  
  
"Lily?"  
  
"What are you doing out here?"  
  
"Me? What about you?"  
  
"I couldn't sleep"  
  
"I could sleep fine... until Sirius started snoring, and woke me up! I can't believe I've never noticed it before – I've shared a dorm room with him for 6 years!"  
  
"Oh. Right."  
  
"Yeah, Lily, this is all very well, but could you stand up? You're sitting on my stomach, and its kinda painful!"  
  
Lily stood up, blushing. She was glad it was so dark! There was a small click, and Lily shut her eyes against the bright light dazzling her.  
  
"Oh, sorry, Lil! Just found my torch – now we can see what's happening." James grinned. "Come on, sit down for a bit. We might as well, or we're gonna wander away from the campsite. I've already got us lost once!"  
  
Lily sat down, curling her legs up beneath her. James sat next to her. For a while, neither spoke.  
  
"Hey, Lily"  
  
Lily glanced up to look James in the eyes. Slowly, he leant over, and kissed her softly on the lips.  
  
  
  
There's a calm surrender  
  
To the rush of day  
  
When the heat of the rolling world  
  
Can be turned away  
  
An enchanted moment  
  
And it sees me through  
  
It's enough for this restless warrior  
  
Just to be with you  
  
And can you feel the love tonight?  
  
It is where we are  
  
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer  
  
That we got this far  
  
And can you feel the love tonight  
  
How it's laid to rest?  
  
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds  
  
Believe the very best  
  
There's a time for everyone  
  
If they only learn  
  
That the twisting kaleidoscope  
  
Moves us all in turn  
  
There's a rhyme and reason  
  
To the wild outdoors  
  
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager  
  
Beats in time with yours  
  
And can you feel the love tonight?  
  
It is where we are  
  
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer  
  
That we got this far  
  
And can you feel the love tonight  
  
How it's laid to rest?  
  
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds  
  
Believe the very best  
  
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds  
  
1 Believe the very best  
  
  
  
A/N: Yay!! Finally! I finished the chapter! That took nearly a week to write – I had an ENORMOUS case of writer's block... but it's done now! I may write more, or I may leave it here. If you want more, please say so in your review... which reminds me, I 'ent writing another chapter 'til I get lotsa nice reviews ( 


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